The 5 Best 35mm Film cameras for beginners.

Mr Badger said:
something like an Olympus OM10 with manual adaptor.
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The OM10 with that adaptor was a triumph of marketing and a disaster of execution. In auto mode you twiddled the aperture ring and the viewfinder lights went up and down showing you the shutter speed. Great, no problem with that. With the adaptor in play you had exactly the same thing, with no clue through the viewfinder what the shutter speed was set at, with the viewfinder just telling you what the shutter speed should be given your selected aperture, so pointless without a separate lightmeter. If I remember correctly. Also, the camera I had kept breaking down so got rid in favour of an FM2n. Much better.

Felt nice in the hand, though.
 
kenm said:
The OM10 with that adaptor was a triumph of marketing and a disaster of execution. In auto mode you twiddled the aperture ring and the viewfinder lights went up and down showing you the shutter speed. Great, no problem with that. With the adaptor in play you had exactly the same thing, with no clue through the viewfinder what the shutter speed was set at, with the viewfinder just telling you what the shutter speed should be given your selected aperture, so pointless without a separate lightmeter. If I remember correctly. Also, the camera I had kept breaking down so got rid in favour of an FM2n. Much better.

Felt nice in the hand, though.
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Agree... the OM10 was one of the worst designed camera for the operating controls I'd come across, but not all Joe public were fooled as the Canon AE1 was the best seller. I'm not much of a fan for the OM2 either but have to use it as I have some excellent lenses for it.
 
I love shooting with my OM10. Yes the controls are incredibly cramped on the top plate but you don't find yourself changing the ISO dial too often so I can forgive that. I'm sure an OM1 or OM2 is much nicer but they're also much more expensive. I got my OM10 with a 50mm f.18 lens for 40 quid from ebay, and I've put about 10 rolls of film through it so far with no issues.
 
RichardC27 said:
I love shooting with my OM10. Yes the controls are incredibly cramped on the top plate but you don't find yourself changing the ISO dial too often so I can forgive that. I'm sure an OM1 or OM2 is much nicer but they're also much more expensive. I got my OM10 with a 50mm f.18 lens for 40 quid from ebay, and I've put about 10 rolls of film through it so far with no issues.
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I think you're right. Whilst the OM10 viewfinder display may have had limitations it was about right for the time and its price-point. To put things in context, just 10 or 15 years earlier many 35mm SLRs didn't even have a match needle in the viewfinder, let alone an in-viewfinder display that told you what the settings were and should be.

It's easy to look at these cameras with 'modern eyes' and point out their shortcomings. Like it or not (and I wasn't really a fan), the OM10 was a big seller at the time, mainly because it was capable of consistently producing some very nice and sharp looking photographs and it was priced more keenly than some of the other big-named competition of the day. My Dad had an OM10 and never struggled with the alleged shortcomings mentioned above, but then again, he'd come from a totally manual 1964 SLR with light meter needle display in a little window on the top plate of the camera and just a plain focusing screen with no split prism focusing aid, so the OM10 was high-tech luxury by comparison.

It's nice to be informed of all the settings via the viewfinder, but I don't see this as a problem if I'm not, as I tend to remember what settings I've selected if I'm shooting in full manual, and the match needle or digital display is there to act as a light meter for comparison with what I've selected. Mind you, I did learn on the same totally manual 1964 SLR mentioned above...
 
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RichardC27 said:
I love shooting with my OM10. Yes the controls are incredibly cramped on the top plate but you don't find yourself changing the ISO dial too often so I can forgive that. I'm sure an OM1 or OM2 is much nicer but they're also much more expensive. I got my OM10 with a 50mm f.18 lens for 40 quid from ebay, and I've put about 10 rolls of film through it so far with no issues.
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AAMOI Olympus redesigned the top plate for the OM20 and I always recommend this model over the OM10.....I've had two OM10s and an OM20 and when I first used the OM10 I have never forgiven it as the controls on top are not fool proof and lost some good shots until I realised what was wrong. :(
 
I started off with an OM40 and earlier this year when I started film photography again it was the first camera I bought and still enjoy using it. I have also tried the OM10, OM20, OM30, OM1, OM2Spot and OM4Ti. I really didn't like the OM10 or OM20. The OM2Spot was my favourite until I got the OM4Ti which is now my main camera. I've not used the OM1 as it has a fault I have never got round to having fixed.

Now my 9 year old daughter has had a go with a few of my cameras and the one she prefers is the Pentax ME Super not an Olympus :dummy:
The one I have has the very common sticky shutter problem which I have managed to improve with servicing but it still there. So I have a very good condition ME Super on its was that she shall be getting as one of her xmas presents along with a few lenses.
 
Mr Badger said:
It's easy to look at these cameras with 'modern eyes' and point out their shortcomings.
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...but 99.9% of all manual focus cameras are about 30 plus years old that's what I compare an OM10 to ;)
 
Quendil said:
I started off with an OM40 and earlier this year when I started film photography again it was the first camera I bought and still enjoy using it. I have also tried the OM10, OM20, OM30, OM1, OM2Spot and OM4Ti. I really didn't like the OM10 or OM20. The OM2Spot was my favourite until I got the OM4Ti which is now my main camera. I've not used the OM1 as it has a fault I have never got round to having fixed.

Now my 9 year old daughter has had a go with a few of my cameras and the one she prefers is the Pentax ME Super not an Olympus :dummy:
The one I have has the very common sticky shutter problem which I have managed to improve with servicing but it still there. So I have a very good condition ME Super on its was that she shall be getting as one of her xmas presents along with a few lenses.
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Well you can't see the difference between lenses of the well known makes (well OK if you are a pixel peeper with large crops you might spot a difference ;)) , so no matter what camera you use it's still the person behind the camera that counts.
Manufacturing tolerances account for most complaints about one lens compared to another e.g . you can get a slightly inferior Nikon lens, same for other makes...dunno about Zeiss.
 
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excalibur2 said:
Manufacturing tolerances account for most complaints about one lens compared to another e.g . you can get a slightly inferior Nikon lens, same for other makes...dunno about Zeiss.
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Or which of the two Zeisses! :D ;) Or is the plural of Zeiss perhaps Zice? :confused:
 
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